Poverty

Definitions Poverty can be defined as a state of being deprived of the essentials of well-being such as adequate housing, food, sufficient income, employment, access to required social services and social status.

Anyone without a set of minimum necessities or essentials for living is said to be in absolute poverty. Relative poverty describes a person as poor in comparison to other members of their society. Poverty line is a measure of the level of income necessary to subsist in a society and varies from place to place and time to time depending on the cost of living.

Purchasing power parity is a method of measuring the relative purchasing power of different countries’ currencies over the same type of goods and services.

Causes of Poverty Warfare Agricultural cycles Droughts and flooding Natural Disasters

Social and Environmental Impacts of Poverty Environmental Degradation Warfare Social Inequality Creation of squatter settlements Increase in crime Strain on the country’s economic resources Retardation of development Fewer incentives for investment High birth rate/death rate

Ways of Eliminating Poverty Share the benefits of economic growth through an emphasis on more widespread employment. Get rid of corruption, which harms society as a whole. Broaden access to education and technology among marginalized groups and especially among girls and women.

Improve government capacity to provide universal access to essential goods and services.

Human Poverty Index The Human Poverty Index (HPI) measures deprivation in basic human development. The variables used here to calculate HPI are percentages of adults who are illiterate, and the overall percentage of people without access to health services and safe water and the percentage of under-weight children under five.

The HDI is a composite of three basic components of human development: longevity, knowledge and standard of living. Longevity is measured by life expectancy. Knowledge is measured by a combination of adult literacy and mean years of schooling. Standard of living is measured by purchasing power, based on real GDP per capita adjusted for the local cost of living.

Poverty Indices The prevalence or poverty as measured by the fraction in the total population living below the poverty line ( the head-count). The intensity of poverty reflected in the extent to which the income of the poor lies below the poverty line, as measured by the differences the two ( the poverty gap). The degree of inequality among the poor, in such a way that income transfers from the worse off among the poor to the poor should raise measured poverty and vice versa ( the severity of poverty index).

The relationship between poverty and population growth. Lack of access to education and health care is at the root of the problem. Without education, those in poverty have few job outside manual labour and subsistence farming. Low wages mean that families cannot afford enough nutritious food. Poor nutrition relates in higher mortality rates.

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